Good Friday: A Life Laid Down That Others May Live

Aimee O'Rourke

Areema Nasrreen

On this day, Good Friday, it is said that a life was laid down so that others might live. How can we hear those words without thinking of nurses Aimee O’Rourke and Areema Nasreen? Many of us will have shed tears on hearing of their deaths. They were in their thirties, both mothers to three young children, and were exposed to a lethal viral load because they were saving the lives of many strangers. Since then, more nurses have died, each one an appalling tragedy.

As of now, ten doctors have also died. Among them was Dr Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, a 52 year old father of two.  Dr Chowdhury recently complained to the Prime Minister that health workers did not have adequate protective equipment. Now Doctor Chowdhury has lost his life, and our Prime Minister could well have lost his.

Dr  Abdul Mabud Chowdhury

Powerful lessons have come thick and fast this week. We remembered that politicians are human beings, as vulnerable to this virus as anyone else. Many of us oppose Boris Johnson politically, and disapprove of him morally, but have refrained from insults and mockery, and wished for his recovery.  A minority, though, so convinced of the purity of their worldview, have dehumanised their political opponents so much that they can find no moral restraint in comments about someone’s son, father, partner, sibling and friend, even while his life and health lie in the balance. Political fundamentalism disturbs me as much as the religious variety.

There have been so many deaths. Many Unitarians will have lost people they have a personal connection with, and I know that some Unitarians have already died from Covid-19. No community is untouched by tragedy.

We have also discovered a struggle between our beliefs and our instincts.  As much as we try to repress it, the instinct to think of ourselves and our loved ones first is too deeply ingrained.  And yet we are utterly dependent on others. Each time we leave our house we are at the mercy of the common sense and decency of others, because not quite everyone is following the spirit and the letter of the restrictions.

We must also depend on the hard work and skill of unknown others. Society has not collapsed, thanks to our essential workers, and in particular, thanks to the sheer goodness and professionalism of doctors, nurses and other health workers.  We are going to get through this because of the sacrificial love of others, most whom we do not know. They seem like angels to us right now.

Which brings us back to Good Friday. Millions of Christians will today thank Jesus for what he did for them on the cross. But talk like this is baffling to non-Christians, and often poorly understood even by Christians.  And what use is it today? We understand what it means when a nurse, doctor or soldier dies for others. What does it matter that a Jewish preacher was executed by the Roman authorities two thousand years ago?

Christianese, that peculiar language of the church, only makes sense if you understand the context and language, most of which is drawn from the Hebrew Bible, a.k.a. the Old Testament. In Christianese, the crucifixion of Jesus finds its context and explanation in an ancient Israelite festival, described in the book of Leviticus, and given a particular interpretation by New Testament authors.  It’s to do with sin, and the idea that Jesus bore the penalty for our sins, so that we can appear before God as though we had no sin, enabling us to enter the Kingdom of God. It’s a way in which God is able to be just and merciful at the same time. As a concept it takes some unpacking. I’d love to talk about terms like vicarious atonement, forensic justification, and penal substitution, but not today.

There are other ways of understanding the meaning of the cross that are equally scriptural, and more appropriate, but I have no desire to explore these now.  Instead, let us pay special attention to just one offshoot of what Christians believe about the death of Jesus on the cross.

It’s to do with obedience. Christianity teaches that by dying on the cross Jesus secured ‘life in abundance’ for others. Some take this as meaning eternal life, for others it means a life that is massively enriched in the here and now.  In response to this, Christians are called to live their lives in a state of gratitude for His sacrifice. One aspect of this is living according to moral laws.  But we are saved by grace, which means that we try to follow the ten commandments, not in order to be saved, but because we have been saved. Christian obedience, properly understood, is done entirely from love and gratitude.

Isn’t this something like what we owe to all health workers?  We’ve been called upon to obey restrictions in order to emerge safely from this crisis. But let‘s change the motivation.  Let’s obey out of gratitude to those health workers who have died, and those who are putting their lives on the line in order to give us all the best possible chance of living through this. To flout the restrictions on social distance and unnecessary outings would display a callous indifference to their sacrifice. Let’s respond to the miracle of sacrificial love from health workers by following the government guidelines entirely, out of love, respect and gratitude for them.